dwot (31.45)

Terry Fox Run - 30 years later

10

What an inspirational day we having. We have Fred Fox, Terry Fox's older brother, at our school today and he did a talk of what it was like growing up with Terry as a brother. Throughout it he talked about how Terry was pretty average and because he wanted to excel, he always worked harder.

It is also 10 years this month that I was diagnosed with cancer, only 2 weeks before the Portland Marathon which I had been training for. Anyway, I did my marathon the weekend before I had my operation.

I always like to use something like this as an opportunity to encourage women to go get their annual pap smears done, they save lives and they make treatment easy. I had a simply surgery on Friday and was able to be back at work by the following Wednesday and I have never needed any follow-up. It is something less then 1 in 1000 women who actually end up dying from cervical cancer when women go for routine pap smears.

If a woman thinks something is wrong and goes to the doctor because something feels wrong, now she is in a battle for her life and something like 1/3 of the cervical cancers found this way result in death and they have often spread by the time a woman realizes something is wrong.

So, yeah, it is cold, uncomfortable, but it is over soon for pap smears, and guys, same deal goes for the prostate. Annual screen makes a huge difference.

I'm glad that your experience was good and I'd agree that a large body of evidence shows Pap smears are a good idea for those at risk for cervical cancer.

I do take issue with your advising all guys to have annual prostate cancer screening. The evidence for annual prostate cancer screening is not impressive, and the risks and benefits are finely balanced. If you are a male please talk to your doctor about the risks vs. benefits of screening for prostate cancer. The US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations are here. http://www.annals.org/content/149/3/185.full

vriguy, whatever, I was only thinking of the last conversation I had with a friend who died of prostate cancer and he was saying how here in Canada a pap smear is covered, but a prostate test had to be paid for.

I didn't know how serious his condition was or that was the last time I would see him. Also, prostate issues are far more age related which I wasn't thinking about when I said get it checked annually. My friend was in his 60s and thought something was wrong when he got it checked. He had just gotten it checked very recently when we met for lunch that last time and passed away about 10 months later.

Anyway, you are right talk to your doctor about it, but especially if you are over 50.

It was a fantastic presentation. He talked about how Terry had been determined about things from when he was little. It is a shame his life was cut short so early, 1958-1981.

His Marathon of Hope annual run has raised about a half billion dollars for cancer research. He was about 20 when he started his run and his goal from the start was to raise $1 for every man, woman and child in Canada for cancer research. I believe that goal was met, something in the $25-30 million range was raise from his effort that first year.

This post was so untimely. A friend in his early 50s just found out today he has prostate cancer. This wasn't a routine check, but rather he could tell something was wrong and the problem has been mistaken for hemorriods for at least 3-4 months. Not good.